With the continuing development of advanced light composite armor plate with kinetic penetration resistance greatly exceeding that even imagined just a decade ago, the importance of tactical armored vehicles to battlefield control has grown in importance after a period of decline. In response to this development the throwing weight required to penetrate such tactical armored vehicles has increased roughly in proportion to the effectiveness of advanced armor plate. In consequence of this requirement for higher throwing weights delivery systems can now exceed the maximum weight allowances for personal infantry weapons, rendering existing personal anti-armor weapons largely ineffectual.
This ineffectiveness of infantry weapons against tactical armored vehicles greatly complicates field tactics inasmuch as battlefield control must pass to units outside the direct control of field commanders, principally to aerial weapon platforms that are not only subject to hostile suppression, but to heavy rain, snow or sand storms that can render them ineffectual at critical periods, as can fog and battlefield smoke.